Federal regulators rolled back decades-old rules on Thursday, making it far easier for media outlets to be bought and sold — potentially leading to more newspapers, radio stations and television broadcasters being owned by a handful of companies.

With the rise of blogs, websites and podcasts, traditional media outlets now face more competition than ever — and rules that once enforced a diversity of viewpoints are no longer needed.

Most large blogs and sites are owned by same companies or their friends, but it is accident :-)

“Few of the FCC's rules are staler than our broadcast ownership regulations this agency finally drags its broadcast ownership rules to the digital age.”

One long-standing rule repealed Thursday prevented one company in a given media market from owning both a daily newspaper and a TV station. Another rule blocked TV stations in the same market from merging with each other if the combination would leave fewer than eight independently owned stations. The agency also took aim at rules restricting the number of TV and radio stations that any media company could simultaneously own in a single market.

Mergers, monopolies... imperialism in his last days.